Fertilizer subsidies in Malawi can reduce farmers' interest in buying commercial fertilizer. However, once farmers decide to buy, factors like farm size, assets, and prices of fertilizer and maize play a bigger role than receiving subsidized fertilizer. On average, getting one extra kilogram of subsidized fertilizer leads to buying 0.20 kilograms less of commercial fertilizer. This suggests that fertilizer subsidies might lower the demand for commercial fertilizer, even though they increase total fertilizer use by a slightly smaller amount than the subsidized quantity.